Tripunithura, the
location of the palace of Cochin Maharaja, is a suburb about 12 km from Ernakulam. The
pratishta in the temple is Sri Rama with
Sita and Lakshman. This idol is believed to be given by the 5th pontiff of Kashi Mutt,
Srimat Raghvendra Tirtha (samadhi 1726 AD) who is said to have the darshan of Lord
Narasimha in one of the pooja rooms at Kashi.

The orginal pratishta was in a small temple
constructed in the land owned by a family migrated to this place from Varapuzha.
Subsequently a new temple was constructed at the present location in about 1658 AD. This
prathista also is believed to be done by the Swamiji (Authentic dates unavailable).

Temple front view

The main prathista of Rama with
Sita and Lakshman

Aerial view of the temple

Other deitiesInside the inner temple there is a pratishta of Ganapati.
There are sub-temples of Hanuman, Nagaraja and Durga in the main temple premises. The
Hanuman pratishta is attracting many devotees and is believed to be blessed by the
presence of Guruswamy Govinda Vadhyar of Quilon who is said to have the darsan of Lord
Hanuman. He had come to this temple and is said to have cured many children.

Hanuman

Durga and Nagaraja
sub-temples

History

Once Srimat Raghavendra Tirtha visited
Tripunithura and stayed in the Varapuzha family for some days. While leaving the
place, satisfied with the family, he blessed the members and gave them the Sri Rama idol which has been personally worshipped by him. The
varapuzha family installed the Rama idol in a small temple contructed in their premises.
Subsequently, the Panakkal family of Tripunithura (the Swamiji is believed to be
from this family), approached the Swamiji and requested for an idol for worship by the
family. Swamiji gave them the Bhagavatham (a Taliyola or book
made from leaves) used by him and blessed that the book too will have the presence of
Lord.

In about 1658 AD, the Varapuzha and Panakkal
families dedicated the Rama idol and the Book to the GSB community at Tripunithura for
worship. In the piece of land donated by the Thamarassery Naicken family, a new temple was
constructed and the Idol and Book were installed in the new temple.The temple was later renovated and puna-prathista done in 1895 AD.

When the Portuguese attacked the Cochin Thirumala
Devaswom Temple in 1662 A.D, the community removed the idol of Shri Venkateswara along
with processional deities from Cochin Gosripuram temple for safety and shifted to
Udayamperur. After the Dutch defeated the Portuguese in 1663 A.D, the idols were shifted
back to Cochin. While on their way back to Cochin, the procession deity of Lord
Venaktewara was temporarily placed for worship in the Agrasala of Shri Rama
temple at Tripunithura. Meanwhile, Sri Hari Shenoy, the then Manager of
the Cochin Thirumala Devaswom had a dream wherein the Lord Venkateswara directed him that
the Venkateswara idol placed in the Agrasala of the Tripunithura temple should also be
installed at the newly constructed Karanakodam temple. The Lord Venkateswara image was
then taken out in a palanquin as a procession to Karanakodam temple and installed there as
directed in the dream.

By the early 20th century, the temple was in a
neglected state and reached the worst financial condition. At the request of the
community, the temple governance was taken over by the Tripunithura Devaswom Board
by order of the Maharaja of Cochin in 1940 AD. In 1961 AD, after a legal battle with Govt
the temple was handed over back to the community.

The original Book kept in the Srikovil in a
Copper box decayed completely and in 1979 AD Srimat Sudheendra Tirtha Swamiji
blessed and handed over a Ramayana book to be kept in its place.

During Annual festivals, the procession starts
from the Varapuzha family who donated the Rama idol to the temple.

Venkatachalapathy

In 1981AD, a
Devaprasnam was conducted at the temple and it was revealed that the temple is
without the presence of Venkatachalapathy after the shifting of Venkateswara idol from the
temple to Karanakodam. This has been the reason for deterioration of the temple and the
local community. A Venkatachalapathy idol was then installed in the same place where the
previous idol was kept, before shifting to Karanakodam. The pratishta was done by Srimat
Sudheendra Tirtha Swamiji in 1981 AD.

Vahanas

The temple has a Garuda Vahana in wood and a
Sesha Vahana in silver, donated by Sri. A.R. Achutha Pai. The Mahajans donated a silver
palaquin in 1995 during the prathista centenary celebrations. An Iravath vahana was
donated by Sri. T.C. Krishna Pai on 18-03-2004.

Garuda Vahana

Sesha Vahana

Silver palaquin

Prathista centenary
celebrations 1995

The centenary of the puna-prathista (1895 AD),
was celebrated in 1995. A sahasra kalasha abhishekham was done on 19-3-1995. From the
donations received from devotees, a thiruvabharanam was made and submitted to the Lord on
6-7-1995 by Srimat Raghavendra Tirtha Swamiji.